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Heinrich d'Fiendeyrr
Heinrich d'Fiendeyrr, 7th Baron d'Fiendeyrr, is the current feudal lord of the Fiend's Beach. A veteran of the Third War and a former commander in the League of Arathor, Heinrich has turned his militant outlook towards the Troll and Elf towns along the Oriental Coast of Lordaeron. Holdings Heinrich's most significant holding is the Fiendeyrr region itself, which makes up the entirety of his holdings. His demesne itself is limited to a small escarpment along the mountain border, which holds his fortress and a small town devoted to the maintenance and upkeep of that fortress. Serving as his representative in the region's most important settlement is Thane Jacob Salter (only recently made a 'Thane', previously without any form of nobility), who acts as the tax collector and chief justice of Gudbayn, and maintains the actual keep of the Eastgate as a garrison for the Baron's troops. Other regions are delegated to a member of the Osterblut Clan and a member of the Aris Family in similar arrangements, where they fill the role of justice and tax collector for the smaller villages. This particular arrangement has been maintained for several centuries to arrest bloodshed between the three families, and Heinrich believes that allowing it to continue is both likely to ensure good management, but is also now 'lucky'. History Dynastic Legacy Heinrich's line have served as the Barons of the Fiendeyrr for just under two centuries, when the local Thanehood was converted into a more typical arrangement. They had previously served as the thanes and household guards of their lord for some time. Early Years Born in 590KY to Baron Boleslaw d'Fiendeyrr and Baroness Ada d'Swartzenstein, Heinrich was the second of five children. He was educated in the traditional manner of his family - in seamanship, martial combat (including archery and the use of the axe), poetry and horsemanship - from the age of six, and at the age of twelve entered into service as the squire to his older brother, Boleslaw (named for their father). Sir Boleslaw, at the time seventeen, had fought with the forces of the Kingdom in the Alterac Passes and further educated Heinrich in the art of fighting larger, stronger enemies. This education was put to the test in the winter of 608KY, when a lean year provoked a series of brutal Troll raids on the region. Sir Boleslaw and Heinrich led the defenders in a dozen skirmishes that year - culminating in a raid on Gudbayn in the first days of 609. Heinrich, leading a flanking detachment of fyrdsmen, was unable to react quickly enough to a sudden charge by the Trolls against the main force led by his brother. He watched as Sir Boleslaw was gutted and then decapitated by troll berserkers, and led a swift counter-charge. The young squire's fury is credited with single-handedly turning the tide of battle (though the real story, and one he has never denied, is that it was the work of the experienced Fyrd sergeants that saved the day), and afterwards he was Knighted. Having a lost a brother and gained a Knighthood, Heinrich was also now the first in line for the title of Baron. The next three years proved to be peaceful and easy for Heinrich. With few threats to the Barony or the County, he was able to indulge in his passion for hunting and sailing, and entertained many marriage offers. In 612, he became engaged to Theresa Woolspinner, the daughter of a wealthy Lordaeronite merchant family. Third War Service Early in 612, Heinrich was called to service to assist the Alliance taskforce in hunting down the escaped orcs as a liason with the Kingdom's authorities, working with Captain Aaron d'Arevass. This new service was cut short as the Orcs fled across the sea - and as the Scourge began to rise. Heinrich found himself trapped on the other side of the Wall from his homeland, fighting a desperate action against the risen undead and their malevolent overlords. During this action, Heinrich distinguished himself. Despite receiving many wounds, he continued fighting until the Fall of Lordaeron - in the process, receiving the grisly wound that has left him blind in his right eye and permanently maimed his features when a ghoul tackled him from his horse and gouged through his helmet. Aaron d'Arevass died in a skirmish, while escorting refugees to Tyr's Hand, and Heinrich assumed command of the force. With the death of Terenas, the tide turned. Heinrich's band fought their way across Lordaeron, protecting survivors where possible, and then made it to the Wall only to be greeted by a terrible sight: The dead, assailing it in huge numbers. That day, Heinrich led a charge against one of the yawning chasms blasted in the stones and forced his way past, to join the defenders in holding the line. It was to prove a difficult and bloody affair. The Wall, built to defend against Highlander incursions into Lordaeron, faced against them, and the handful of gaps were constantly probed by the undead. Nonetheless, the Highlanders and their refugee allies held the line - barely - for long months. Dwarf rifles and mortars blew great holes in the ranks of the teeming dead, and Highlander shieldwalls moved to hold the gaps whenever possible. The situation grew grim as ammunition dwindled, and the majority of the men were injured in one way or another. That the Undead suddenly left one day was a miraculous thing to the defenders. Heinrich himself had, by this time, distinguished himself yet again in the fighting. His experience with the Alliance taskforce had proven crucial to organizing the multi-national defence of the wall, and he had personally led a number of successful sallies of Lordaeronite Knight refugees, Arathorian Light Horse, and Alteraci jaegers out to burn bodies and assassinate necromancers. Heinrich was awarded with a golden torc for his efforts, and an honorary position as an officer of the Ninth Legion - the detachment customarily assigned to guard the Wall's surrounds and respond to any aggression from Lordaeron or Alterac. Baron d'Fiendeyrr In 615, Boleslaw d'Fiendeyrr died, and Heinrich became the 7th Baron of the Fiend's Beach. The transition was smooth, as Heinrich was not just the only heir, but a familiar face in the region. The prior three years had been spent working with his people to try and survive the sudden difficulties posed by the severance of the Oriental trade routes and the rising political unrest in Stromgarde. Though insulated from the Syndicate by the mountains, the ramifications of their sudden onslaught was felt keenly all the same, as the traders who braved the land routes became less and less frequent and their allies, the Witherbark trolls, began once again to stage raids in the area. Heinrich's leadership faced these same challenges, and endured admirably. While there were a number of deaths in the early Troll raids, the region's fyrd swiftly rallied and began training. While it would be a mistake to call the region prosperous in any sense, they have so far avoided famine, as the sea provided an endless bounty for the taking. The people grew thinner, but did not starve, without trade to support them. The most unexpected challenge to Heinrich's leadership was the chaos following the death of King Thoras, which rippled across the Kingdom. A number of his subjects set south with their belongings; the bulk perished, but some (including a number of Salters and a handful of Osterbluts) reached Stormwind and began agitating there for their kin to follow. With his people hungry and restless, Heinrich faced a future where he would be Baron of a crumbling holding without anyone to live on it. It was the decision to personally finance the construction of new fishing ships and border-forts that prevented that outcome. With work bringing coin to their pockets and the promise of future food and safety, the bulk of his people chose to remain. First Arathi Civil War Troll Raider Shortly after the First War, with the country's small steps towards recovery erased and the immense increase in bandit activity, Heinrich again faced the prospect of losing his people to 'better' homes - this time not just Stormwind, but also the Argent enclaves of the North. His response was unexpected. Rather than wait for the trolls to come to them and break on the border-forts manned by the fyrd, Heinrich would lead the fyrd north to the Hinterlands and keep them from ever coming in the first place. He would bring back gold and food and pelts in the doing, and make his people rich from the sea once again. He ordered the construction of new ships - not fishing vessels, but rather sleek ships with a thin profile and a long keel, taking a cue from history and the raiders of the Baradin islands who had once terrorized Gilneas and Southern Stromgarde. In late 623KY, Heinrich led his first raid up the coast, with three ships and a hundred and fifty men between them. They returned two weeks later after pillaging a coastal village of forest trolls loosely affiliated with the Revantusk Tribe, ships laden with gold and foods (while there was some aversion to consuming troll foodstuffs, the grumbling bellies of the people won them over and the salted and smoked fish and fruit were soon viewed without suspicion.) In what was quite possibly a first, humans had raided troll villages not as part of a greater strategy, but for pillage. There was a certain grand poetic quality to this, the reversal of the order for hundreds of years. The idea that the trolls would once again learn to fear humans spread throughout the region, and troll-hunters from across the Troll-March came to join Heinrich's expeditions. By 625KY, Heinrich's raiding fleet numbered fifteen ships and just under seven hundred men. Second Arathi Civil War Personality Current Activities Category:Pirates Category:Warriors Category:Troll-March Category:House of Fiendeyrr Category:Stromgarde Peerage